Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in UK ‘bribed’ by sellers to offer good review | Hacker News Reader

Up to tenth of Amazon shoppers in UK ‘bribed’ by sellers to offer good review

theguardian.com

18 pointsadrian_mrd10 comments

I purchased a cordless power tool for the THEN-great deal of ~$200USD — item arrives, along with bribe to "leave a review and we'll send you a SECOND FREE BATTERY!"

Cool, as I typically leave reviews around 60-days of ownership... for this case I MADE AN EXCEPTION and immediately rated 5-stars. Left wondering 'how can they make this already-great deal EVEN BETTER?!'

Six weeks later, no 2nd battery has arrived (yet); I have been enjoying the new power tool immensely (still am); I walk into my local CostCo and see the same tool, packaged with TWO batteries, for ~$130USD!!!

Thankfully, it stung Less when my 2nd battery (from having left a review on Amazon) arrived from the re-seller. Tool still runs great!

Observation: "Buy $Thing from Amazon" seems to have become the hard-wired default behavior of a large fraction of my friends / family / coworkers. And their kinda-regular crappy experiences with Amazon elicit plenty of complaining...but do not seem to stimulate real "should I change my behavior?" doubts.

If a large-enough fraction of Amazon's customer base behave that way, then Amazon's obvious profit-maximizing strategy is to keep making things crappier and crappier.

It’s largely because products outside of Amazon are equally as crappy. But people have significant confidence in Amazon’s return system where if something is stolen or doesn’t arrive, they can have it resolved.

Buying elsewhere, even when it’s from a physical location, doesn’t always provide that same consistent experience.

This happens beyond Amazon too. It happens almost anywhere where you can expect to have your problems resolved. To this effect, people are willing to spend their money where there is more peace of mind. Even if the product itself might not be the best.

I feel that quality has dropped across the board, Amazon or not. At least in some countries, even the originally-reputable brick & mortar retailers now operate as a "marketplace", which means any search there is also full of dropshipped crap and the same shenanigans as Amazon.

Amazon is full to the brim with poor quality knock off products — using it now is almost akin to browsing Wish, Temu, etc. I find myself using it less and less.

It’s Wish or Temu with higher prices but faster delivery. It may be crap but it sure is convenient crap.

I bought a pair of wide fit walking shoes last time, they were no more a wide fit than any other random brand of walking shoe. I left a review to warn others that, despite 500 or so people claiming these were the best wide fit shoes they ever owned, the shoes were not a wide fit.

Sure enough comes the email asking me to remove my review, claim a refund and keep the shoes.

As a fellow wide-sized shoes bearer, I sympathize immensely. I have no affiliation, except as customer: but Colombia footwear has won me over with their lineup of WIDEs (and I can afford and also love my Red Wings). I can purchase three pairs of tennis shoes from Clmbia for every one RW.

My last Amazon purchase (before account de-activation) was for an expensive, form-fitting life preserver (floation aid). I am a BIG BOY, so I used the provided `fit guide` for my XXL — and received this joke of a napkin stamped proudly `XXL` — seller "wanted a picture" so my fat ass was happy to flubber his desires.

Honestly, it's the last place I would buy from now. Bought something online from a tiny shop I know last week. Perfect service.

My first eBay account was October 2000 — I haven't transacted there since ~2006 (after having been entry-level "PowerSeller" for years).

Then I shopped Amazon from 2009 until early 2023 (2FA requirement disabled my ability to access AMZN[PS:sell]); I had already left AmazonPrime ~2019 (and just bought >$25 for FREE SHIPPING, instead). $FullfilmentByAmazon$: 2010-2016; now they have helped by effectively disabling account access... thankfully.

If a client needs something "from Amazon," now... I just have them order it themselves (by sending them links — which for legal tax reasons is also nice).

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